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Smog in northern China reaches 'crisis' point

MARK COLVIN: For the past week, much of north China has been blanketed in a thick layer of hazardous pollution.

Children are being kept indoors, many people won't leave their homes without protective masks, and crops are said to be dying for lack of sunlight. The World Health Organization has labelled it a 'crisis'.

China Correspondent Stephen McDonell joins me now from the Beijing Bureau. You look out of your windows today, what are you seeing, Stephen?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, normally we have a very good view of the gleaming CBD, but not a building in sight I'm afraid today.

MARK COLVIN: And that's really big skyscrapers, just gone?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, you can't even make out these huge monolithic structures.

MARK COLVIN: What about the actual scientific measures of the pollution?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, I'm looking at it now as it comes in. These small particulate matters - PM2.5, they call it - this is the really dangerous stuff. Now, it should be at a level around 40. At the moment, it's 542, so many times a safe level - nine or 10 times what it should be.

MARK COLVIN: And are you getting that from Chinese sources, or do you have to get it from things like the American Embassy's pollution registers?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, they've both got it over 500 at the moment.

MARK COLVIN: So the Chinese are being straight about it, now?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

MARK COLVIN: So people… with the crops, the lack of sunlight, people are actually talking about a food crisis?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Yeah, no, this does seem incredible, but apparently the sun is struggling so much to get through this pollution across northern China - so it's not just Beijing, it's this entire region - that it's… scientists here are saying that plant photosynthesis is being eaten into, and all these crops are dying.

So they've really got such a huge problem on their hands with pollution, and there's no easy fix. It's tough, and it's going to involve eating into China's growth if they want to fix it.

MARK COLVIN: What's the Government saying about it?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, you know, we are closing down the most clapped out coal-fired power stations. We are replacing things; we are rolling out wind power and solar; it's sort of under control. But if you speak to anyone on the streets they don't think that.

MARK COLVIN: And it is a fairly repressive society in terms of free speech, but are people expressing their anger about it?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Yes, and funnily enough it is one of the things which is tolerated here. Like, in the press, in social media, you do have people getting stuck into the authorities over this, and even at the highest levels. You know, Chinese politicians criticising their own government's handling of it.

MARK COLVIN: And are people actually going outside, or are they just limiting their movement completely?

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, children, for example, are not going outside. They've been told to stay indoors. You walk past a school and normally you would hear hundreds of kids running around on their, you know, playground; no one to be seen.

The elderly… and as you mentioned in the intro, a lot of people won't go outside without these masks; if you just walk down the street, there are just masks everywhere. And people are wrapping scarves around their faces and burying their face in their hands - anything they can do to get out of this pollution.